Two arrested over Kenya attacks

At least 13 people were killed yesterday in a suicide bombing at a Kenyan hotel used by Israelis, as a departing Israeli airliner narrowly escaped a missile attack at the airport.

Among the victims were three Israelis, two of them children, Israeli officials said, while the hotel manager said 10 Africans were killed and 18 Israelis hospitalised.

Kenyan police said they had arrested two people in Mombasa in connection with the attacks.

Witnesses said an all-road vehicle carrying three people burst through the barrier around the Israeli-owned Paradise Mombasa Hotel some 25km outside the port city about 8.25am (1625 AEDT).

It then smashed through the front door of the building and exploded in the reception area where 140 Israeli tourists were gathered, checking in to their hotel rooms. ");document.write("

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Minutes later, a charter plane from Israel's Arkia airlines, with 261 passengers on board, came under attack from two missiles, both of which narrowly missed their target, an Israeli foreign ministry official said.

"If missiles were really fired at one of our planes, this would be an escalation in international terrorism which would threaten the entire world's air traffic," Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli television.

The Israeli tourists in the lobby of the hotel had just stepped off the Arkia flight and were being greeted by a group of Kenyan dancers, six of whom died in the blast.

Kenyan government official Peter Okwanyo at the scene of the hotel blast said: "The building is on fire and we have sought assistance from the Kenyan navy."

"There are 13 dead, three Israelis and 10 Africans as well as 18 Israelis hospitalised," Lehuda Sulamani, the Israeli manager of Paradise Mombasa Hotel said at the scene of the blast.

"The pilot of the plane saw the flashes of two missiles fired at his plane," Israeli public radio reported.

"The plane was not hit and no one aboard the plane was hurt, Everything is working normally," the head of Arkia Shlomo Khanael told reporters.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the two attacks.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw vehemently condemned the attacks in Kenya, saying there was no justification for such acts of "terrorism", but did not immediately point the finger of blame at Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

"I personally see no evidence which immediately links the al-Qaeda organisation to this outrage but obviously we are assessing all the indications that we have," he said in London.

"We have to be alive to the fact that there are appalling terrorists around the world, well-organised and sadly well equipped, capable of provocating this kind of outrage, and that is what they have done today."

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also condemned the attacks and described it as a bid to deepen the crisis in the Middle East.

"It is an attack designed to escalate the situation in the Middle East by killing innocent people."

He said there appeared to be no indications yet that the attacks were linked to the al-Qaeda network, which is blamed for the September 11, 2001, suicide plane strikes in the United States.

When asked who was suspected of carrying out the missile attack, Netanyahu said: "We don't know, there are several possibilities. Palestinian terror groups are trying to acquire anti-air missiles and Hezbollah already has such weapons."

"There have been lots of attacks against our interest abroad but this is the first time one of our airliners has apparently been attacked by ground-to-air missiles," Netanyahu told Israeli television.

An Israeli military plane carrying emergency rescue workers and investigators was scheduled to leave Israel today for Mombasa, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

Israeli state airline El Al cancelled all incoming international flights until further notice, Israeli radio reported.

In August 1998 the US embassy in Nairobi was the target of a bomb attack blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, which claimed the lives of 213 people, including 12 Americans.

Yesterday's incident sent shockwaves through Israel, already on tenterhooks after more than two years of Palestinian uprising and the threat of an Iraqi reaction to the planned US military offensive against Iraq.

Israel, together with the United States, has always topped the target list of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.